The President of the Parliamentary Commission of Industry, Foreign Trade, Research and Energy of the European Parliament, Mr. Carlos Westendorp, recalled that for many years, MPs have wanted to give the multilateral trading system a process in which they, as representatives of the people, can express their ideas and concerns about multilateral trade. "For many years, we have been working with the IPU towards this objective; we are convinced that we have to give a parliamentary dimension to the WTO in order to increase its transparency and improve the democratic legitimacy of its activities".

Mr. Westendorp explained that the MPs gathered in Geneva would be debating major issues on the trade negotiating agenda and the need to promote free trade through clearly established rules.

Mr. Westendorp regretted that "trade negotiations are not progressing as we might wish. It is therefore very important that MPs from Member countries of the WTO send a firm message from this conference here in Geneva to the trade negotiators in order to give them a clear idea of what the representatives of the people are seeking ".

As to the idea of giving a parliamentary dimension to the WTO, Mr. Westendorp indicated that the MPs in Geneva would be looking at the most effective way to achieve their goal. "There are many options, one of them being, in the long term, to give WTO a permanent assembly, but there is another, this conference, which enables us to work together, maybe once a year, and on the occasion of WTO ministerial meetings, in order to keep track of WTO activities, continue the dialogue with government negotiators and exchange experiences and ideas that parliaments, as representatives of people, can transmit to the negotiators. We will inaugurate a process of meetings so that government negotiators can become aware of what the parliamentarians think"

The WTO Deputy Director General, Mr. Francisco Thompson-Flôres, said that "right from the beginning, parliamentarians were involved with the WTO. Parliaments had to ratify the results of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations before their governments could join the WTO. Since then, parliamentarians have regularly formed part of national delegations to ministerial conferences and parliamentary involvement with the WTO has intensified through initiatives such as the meetings of parliamentarians in Seattle and Doha and the IPU's conference on trade issues held two years ago in Geneva".

Mr. Thompson-Flôres added : "Seattle brought many lessons. Thankfully, the lessons were well-learnt as WTO Members and the Secretariat regrouped and began the long march to Doha and now on to Cancun. I believe we can all take pride in changes made to the way the WTO operates. We are now more inclusive in our processes and are doing much more to ensure smaller and poorer WTO Members can participate in our negotiations. We are cooperating with international and regional agencies more closely than ever before. We have made real progress too in our efforts to enhance the WTO's image and engage civil society".